Meeting of Federal Security Service Board

Vladimir Putin took part
in an annual expanded meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Board to discuss the FSB’s results for 2016 and the priority tasks for ensuring Russia’s
national security.

February 16, 2017

13:50

Moscow

Meeting of Federal Security Service Board

President
of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

These
annual FSB Board meetings give us a chance to meet and not only thoroughly
analyse and review the results of the agency’s work over the period, but also to discuss at length all important national security issues in general and outline
the priorities for the immediate future and the longer-term.

The FSB
plays a key part in protecting our constitutional order and our country’s
sovereignty, and in protecting our people from threats at home and abroad.

Let me say
from the start that last year’s results were positive and show good
development. This concerns your work to counter terrorism and extremism, a series of successful counterintelligence operations, your efforts to combat
economic crime, and other areas.

You
ensured a high standard of security for major public events, including the State Duma election and regional and local elections.

I would
like to thank both the executives and staff for their conscientious attitude
towards their work and their timely and efficient performance of their duties.

At the same time, demands on the quality and results of your work grow constantly. The global situation has not become any more stable or better over the past year.
On the contrary, many existing threats and challenges have only become more
acute.

Military-political
and economic rivalry between global and regional policy makers and between
individual countries has increased. We see bloody conflicts continue in a number of countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. International
terrorist groups, essentially terrorist armies, receiving tacit and sometimes
even open support from some countries, take active part in these conflicts.

At the NATO summit last July in Warsaw, Russia was declared the main threat to the alliance for the first time since 1989, and NATO officially proclaimed
containing Russia its new mission. It is with this aim that NATO continues its
expansion. This expansion was already underway earlier, but now they believe
they have more serious reasons for doing so. They have stepped up the deployment of strategic and conventional arms beyond the national borders of the principal NATO member states.

They are
provoking us constantly and are trying to draw us into confrontation. We see
continued attempts to interfere in our internal affairs in a bid to destabilise
the social and political situation in Russia itself.

We also see
the recent serious flare-up in southeast Ukraine. This escalation pursues the clear aim of preventing the Minsk Agreements from going ahead. The current
Ukrainian authorities are obviously not seeking a peaceful solution to this
very complex problem and have decided to opt for the use of force instead. What
is more, they speak openly about organising sabotage and terrorism, particularly
in Russia. Obviously, this is a matter of great concern.

The events
and circumstances I have mentioned require our security and intelligence
services, especially the Federal Security Service, to concentrate their utmost
attention and effort on the paramount task of fighting terrorism.

We have
already seen that our intelligence services dealt some serious blows to terrorists and their accomplices. Last year’s results confirm this: the number
of terrorism related crimes has decreased.

Preventive
work has also brought results. The FSB and other security agencies, with the National Antiterrorist Committee acting as coordinator, prevented 45 terrorism related
crimes, including 16 planned terrorist attacks. You deserve special gratitude
for this.

You need
to continue your active efforts to identify and block terrorist groups’
activity, eliminate their financial base, prevent the activities of their
emissaries from abroad and their dangerous activity on the internet, and take
into account in this work Russian and international experience in this area.

The murder
of our ambassador to Turkey was a terrible crime that particularly highlighted
the need to protect our citizens and missions abroad. I ask you to work
together with the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Intelligence Service to take
additional measures to ensure their safety.

You must also
work to take our counterterrorism cooperation with partners abroad to a new
level, despite the difficulties that we see in various areas of international
life. It is a priority, of course, to intensify work with our partners in organisations such as the UN, the CSTO, and the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation.

It is in our common interests to restore dialogue with the US intelligence services and with other NATO member countries. It is not our fault that these ties were
broken off and are not developing. It is very clear that all responsible
countries and international groups should work together on counterterrorism,
because even simply exchanging information on terrorists’ financing channels
and sources and on people involved in or suspected of links with terrorism can
substantially improve the results of our common efforts.

Our
priorities include firmly suppressing extremism. Security methods must go
hand-in-hand with constant prevention work. It is essential to prevent
extremism from drawing young people into its criminal networks, and to form an overall firm rejection of nationalism, xenophobia, and aggressive radicalism. In this context, of great importance is open dialogue with civil society
institutions and representatives of Russia’s traditional religions.

Counterintelligence
services also face greater demands today. Operational data show that foreign
intelligence services’ activity in Russia has not decreased. Last year, our
counterintelligence services put a stop to the work of 53 foreign intelligence
officers and 386 agents.

This makes
it a priority to improve our system for protecting classified information comprising
state secrets, particularly with agencies going over to an electronic document
circulation system.

I would
like to note that the number of cyberattacks on official information resources
tripled in 2016 compared to 2015. In this context, each agency must develop its
segment of the state system for detecting and preventing cyberattacks on information resources and eliminating their consequences.

The public
expects greater results in such key areas as economic security and the fight
against corruption. I ask you to be particularly thorough in monitoring the funds allocated for state defence procurement (a subject I have spoken about
before), major infrastructure projects, preparation of big international
events, and implementing federal targeted and socially important programmes. Regrettably, we
still see many cases of state funds being embezzled or misappropriated.

Reliable
protection of our state borders plays a big part in ensuring our country’s comprehensive
security. The priority here is to close off channels through which members of international terrorist and extremist groups enter Russia, and put a firm stop
to all forms of smuggling, from weapons to drugs and various bio-resources.

Of course,
we must continue the work to develop border infrastructure where it is not yet
sufficiently developed, particularly in the Far East and in the Arctic.

Colleagues,
let me stress that we will continue to bolster the FSB’s central and regional
branches and ensure you have the most advanced arms and equipment. We will also
continue to give attention to social provisions for FSB personnel and their
family members.

I wish you
success in protecting our national interests and the security of our country and our people. I am confident that you will continue working towards your targets with
dignity.